Swine Flu map mashup

Google Map Mashup of the latest incidences and news on the spread of the Swine Flu (H1N1).

I wonder how long it will be before someone connects this to Google’s Latitude service. That way you could know whether you are close to someone who is infected, as well as which route to take to avoid them.

The Real Pirate Bay

Excellent point:

The Pirate Bay guys were criminally prosecuted for….violating (largely obsolete) copyright. Almost no one in finance has been held even civilly liable for vastly more economically damaging actions.

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You can’t touch this

Completely oblivious mother in the background makes this priceless.

via Metafilter

“Infidelity happens – don’t let it happen to you!”

For US$ 49.95, The CheckMate Semen Detection Test Kit claims to be the:

“…easiest and most cost effective way to put an end to the nightmare of suspicion and doubt caused by the infidelity of a cheating spouse or of a sexually active teen.”

It has apparently escaped them that if you’ve detected something, it is probably too late to stop infidelity happening to you (sic). Maybe they are hoping you will replace the “nightmare of suspicion and doubt” with jealousy and fury, for which they sell the 500,000V Straight Electron Stun Gun for US$69.95 (you save 23%). Rather suspiciously, that particular gadget is from the non-lethal category.

Disasters everywhere (well, almost)

This handy world map has lots of little flashy icons showing disaster areas across the planet. Typhoid outbreaks. Algal Blooms. Chemical Spills. Erupting Volcanoes. Car pile-ups. It presents quite an impressive catalogue of human misery. My only question is, if the Hungarian National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications deems small ammonia leaks on train carriages in Wisconsin worthy of a flashing skull and crossbones, why does their map of Iraq not reflect any problems whatsoever? For example, every major news organization seems to have noticed a chlorine bomb going off in Baghdad today.

Oscartorrents

The Pirate Bay (which is blocked here in Turkey) has just launched a new site specifically for tracking movie torrents of this year’s Oscar nominees/winners: Oscartorrents. I find their hatred for the MPAA/RIAA particularly amusing:

You haven’t beaten us, so why not join us? Think of a new business model that doesn’t involve overpriced pieces of plastic and skanky cinemas hawking cheap carbohydrates while relying on $6/hr projectionists who can’t keep a film in focus — not to mention insulting your audiences by (to pick a few examples) surveilling us with nightvision glasses, searching bags, 30 minutes of commercials and bombarding us with ridiculous anti-piracy propaganda. Take a look at yourselves. Is it really any wonder we’re winning?

and if you are worried about getting caught:

To those worried about downloading in case they get sued: by our calculations, your chances of getting nailed are way less than your chances of winning the lottery. Don’t think twice about it

For variation, there’s also Isohunt.

Mechanical Turk

Given that insulting turkishness is an activity that can have lethal consequences, I wonder how long it will be before the term Mechanical Turk is considered derogatory and phased out of normal usage. Amazon doesn’t seem to think there is a problem.

Google EngEDU

Google’s college campus type office environment is not only for them. They very generously upload videos of visiting speakers to video.google.com They are a little hard to find unless one searches specifically for google EngEDU.

Many focus on computer programming, but there are some on plenty of other topics, for example: wilderness survival, Darfur and Ocean Wave Energy.

Earthquakes in the last week

Google maps/USGS mashup that is useful for those of us living on faultlines: Earthquakes in the last week.

Here is the most recent one in Turkey.